This morning I woke up, sat up in bed, and read the most recent issue of Front Sight, the USPSA magazine.

Someone finally did an intelligent article on Russian bimetal ammo that is so popular nowadays. To make a long story short, using such ammo may shorten the life of your barrel. This is because the copper jacketing covering the steel jacketed bullet is extremely thin and tends to get entirely rubbed off in places while still in your barrel, so your barrel ends up being exposed to steel from the bullet.

The author used some university laboratory equipment to ascertain the composition of various Russian manufactured bullets, and also to determine how much material had been removed from bullets after they were fired from various firerams into a medium from which they could be recovered intact. According to the author you can see the thinness of the copper jacket for yourself if you take a piece of sandpaper to some of these bullets.

Sellier and Bellot, which is what I shoot through my .45, is okay, though, because the way that they economize is by using 30% brass and 70% copper in their jacketing, as opposed to 100% copper. So if you want to shoot cheap Eastern European ammo without running steel down your barrel, that could be the way to go.

I've put many tens of thousands of rounds of cheap Russian steel jacket crap through Glocks, mostly 9mm and .40 without issue, no premature wear on factory or aftermarket conversion barrels. A ton of Wolf, Brown Bear, and probably Tul now a majority of it since it's less than $10 a box at the Wal-Mart for 9 and $12-13 for .40.

My experience is that AKs will happily run without issue on the stuff.

I've put many tens of thousands of rounds of cheap Russian steel jacket crap through Glocks, mostly 9mm and .40 without issue, no premature wear on factory or aftermarket conversion barrels. A ton of Wolf, Brown Bear, and probably Tul now a majority of it since it's less than $10 a box at the Wal-Mart for 9 and $12-13 for .40.

My experience is that AKs will happily run without issue on the stuff.

But Wolf and the like were an absolute nightmare in both ARs I had.

Can depend on the brand of AR. Was the chamber .223 or 5.56? Blue or black extractor insert? Were you firing 100% steel cases or were some brass cases in the mix?

His heart was visible, and the dismal sack that maketh excrement of what is eaten.

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Mar 2006

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It would be interesting to see some solid figures on how much barrel life is reduced by shooting cheap ammo.

I shoot the good stuff, but if you're looking at it from purely a cost standpoint, my guess is the extra wear from the cheap ammo won't justify the more expensive ammo. You can get a new AR barrel for the price of a case of Federal 5.56.